From IRS offices to businesses that rely on government contracts and even on NASA’s Twitter feeds, the effects of the federal partial shutdown could be felt already throughout Southern California on Tuesday.

The first shutdown in 17 years resulted in the closure of national parks, monuments and forests, presidential libraries and the furlough of some 800,000 employees throughout the nation.

In some cases, Southern Californians who had to use government offices on Tuesday were not aware of how the shutdown might affect them, leading them to show up to conduct business only to be turned away.

That happened to Floyddell Wilson, a high school history teacher in Indio, who drove 75 miles to downtown San Bernardino on Tuesday afternoon to get a certified statement of his income last year so his son could get scholarship funding released, but found the IRS office closed.

“I’m concerned I might not be able to get the information my son needs,” he said as he drove away.

Similarly, taxpayers arrived at the IRS office in El Monte ready to pay back taxes and make other payments, and they found a sign alerting them of the closure.

Steve Hennigan, 60, a website owner from Arcadia, goes to the office on the first of every month to pay $500 in back taxes, and he is almost finished resolving the debt.

“I’m kinda shocked,” Hennigan said. “I don’t pay attention to the news. I saw the sign downstairs (that said the IRS is closed) and thought this can’t happen. They can’t shut down. They usually work things out.”

In La Cañada Flintridge, even though about 5,000 employees at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will report to work as usual, no information will be going out during the shutdown.

In line with NASA headquarters shutting down on Monday, JPL has put news releases, website and social media updates on hiatus.

“Information going out through the Twitter feeds and website, we coordinate with the program manager at NASA,” said JPL spokeswoman Veronica McGregor. “Without that coordination, we’re not releasing mission information during the shutdown.”

However, since JPL is privately run by Caltech and under contract to NASA, it is spared from being shut down with the rest of the space exploration organization. But the JPL Twitter feeds that are manned by NASA headquarters are already silent.

Hopefully no one will need to be alerted about a large object bearing down on Earth from space this week — the Asteroid Watch account, JPL’s Near Earth Object Office that coordinates NASA’s efforts to detect potentially hazardous asteroids comets that could impact Earth, is also closed for now.

“In the event of government shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account. We sincerely hope to resume tweets soon,” the account tweeted.

NASA “will shut down almost entirely,” President Barack Obama said Monday, but Mission Control will remain open to support the two NASA astronauts living on the International Space Station.

But not every federal office in the area was closed. Veterans Affairs facilities and federal courthouses among other essential agencies continued to operate.

“They’ve been very good to us; glad the VA’s open today,” said Bernice Novell of Oxnard, who had taken a bus to the Sepulveda VA in North Hills for an ear exam for her husband, Don, 88, an Army and Air Force veteran of World War II and Korea. “(But) I worry about the shutdown, too.

“I just don’t like the idea that the government shut down, and my husband’s medical care for his hearing (might be) compromised.”

The VA updated its “field guide” for veterans Tuesday to show all its hospitals and clinics would be open during the shutdown, including counseling and veterans crisis lines. Such medical services have been funded through fiscal year 2014.

What could be impacted by a prolonged closure are claims for veterans disability, pension, education and vocational rehabilitation programs. Such services are funded through late October.

“However, in the event of a prolonged shutdown, claims processing and payments in these programs will be suspended when funds are exhausted,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statement.

“So far, we have not interrupted our VA services whatsoever,” said Richard Beam, spokesman for the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, which includes five clinics in Orange and Los Angeles counties. “But we remain concerned because our veterans may not be aware that we’re fully functional.”

At the Loma Linda veterans hospital, the shutdown was on the minds of veterans.

One said the shutdown was part of a larger problem.

“They work for the people, said Vietnam veteran Michael Adams, 69, of Beaumont, outside the Loma Linda VA.

“The land of the free is no more,” Adams said. “They ( Congress) should be locked up in a room until they solve this.”

At the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, offices serving veterans and offering passport services were open for business. And at the Federal Building on Los Angeles Street in downtown Los Angeles, the Internal Revenue Service’s offices remained closed Tuesday. Passport services were available, however.

The Federal Housing Administration was mostly shut down, though some employees are staying on duty to process paperwork.

Mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae said they planned to keep operating during the shutdown.

The pipeline for mortgage processing will likely slow if elected representatives do not soon end the budget impasse.

“There will be a limited number of exempted FHA staff available to underwrite and approve single family home loans,” Jereon Brown, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, said in a statement. “The underwriting and approval process will definitely be slower than normal.”

However some lenders might have trouble gaining timely access to Social Security and income tax verification from the Internal Revenue Service, officials said.

But the stop-gap approach appeared to be working on Tuesday.

“Wells Fargo is currently facing no disruption to the issuing or origination of government loans nor any disruption to customers who are undergoing modification reviews,” said Alfredo Padilla, spokesman for the nation’s largest mortgage originator.

Dustin Hobbs, spokesman for the California Mortgage Bankers Association said that the work flow was still normal.

“As long as it’s not an extended slowdown there should be a minimal impact on the system. Lenders are acting as if there is no change,” he said.

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